Finally the official version of Drupal 7 is here!

So far the experience of working with Drupal 7 is very positive, and it is amazing what you can build with this framework.

The best thing about Drupal 7 is that so many things work out of the box, and you no longer need to install 15 extra modules to make a working website. And the whole interface has become more simple to use. Another great thing is that it loads faster than previous versions.

One thing that many people will probably miss is a rich text editor like the one used inside WordPress. Drupal 7 still ships with no editor at all.

In this world of web development things tend to change very fast. On the opposite, the work on Drupal 7 has taken such a long time, so it will be interesting to see if Drupal can keep up with the pace and requirements of other internet players.

Here is a video introduction to Drupal 7:

We look forward to using Drupal 7 in future web projects. See you at the party tomorrow!

On December 17th we hope to see you all for the opening of a photographic exhibition that we are putting up together with our landlord Bent. Bent has been working at Islands Brygge 91-93 for some 35 years but is now moving his workspace elsewhere. So for us the exhibition will work as a tribute to Bent. Please join us on December 17th at 15 hours for some Glögg. Of course the exhibition can be seen online as well: www.historierfrabryggen.dk – but remember there is no Glögg online.

We are attending the Drupal conference Drupalcon in Copenhagen next week. Drupal is our favourite cms system, and the venue is really close to our office, so we are very excited. We are bringing several friends to the free unconference on the first day, so that might be something to consider if you can’t afford the conference ticket.

A website is on the way

Office view January 4th 2010..

It has become a tradition for us to write a blog post at the end of the year that sums up what we have been up to in the year passed by (2007, 2008).

If 2008 was a break-through year for Genau, 2009 was so even more. The income from jobs exploded so we ended up with an income roughly 5 times as big as previous years. Some of our work is on show in the about/portfolio section.

One of our favourite projects of 2009 was the “Os på Sjælør” project. Sjælør Boulevard is a residential area in Copenhagen most known for its heavy social and criminal reputation but things are getting better thanks to the Os på Sjælør project and other efforts. Read a previous blog post about the project.

The financial situation allowed us to expand and create our own shared office space at Bryggen 93, 2nd floor. The office fills 9 people. Genau still only consists of two people though, but the boundaries between the different companies at the place have certainly become blurred since we have been collaborating with both Christie (netseeds.dk), Ulrik, and White Walls of DK in real money projects.

Our usual underground or activist projects have been few if any this year. We see the Bryggen 93 place as such an activity though. In 2010 we want to invite you for more progressive events – a few film nights are already in the pipeline so stay updated by following us on our co-edited twitter account: @brygen93. Of course you are always welcome to drop by for coffee or a quick game of table tennis. See you in 2010!

The website for our shared work space Bryggen 93 has launched – so far just a front page with random background images. Have a look at www.bryggen93.dk

The Sjælør neighbourhood in Copenhagen consists of some 15 big and very similar buildings home to about 2500 people. There are no shops or anything else than apartments in the neighbourhood. This approach to urban planning dates back to the 1970s when it was popular to keep things apart: one place for living, another place for work and a third place for shopping. This has resulted in an area with a lot of fear and also some violence.

In short The Sjælør Helhedsplan project is trying to turn the neighbourhood into something nice with various projects, like open air film screenings, urban city mothers, sports events, and much more.

Last weekend we hosted a short video workshop during the Sjælør summerparty. We bought some very easy-to-use pocket video cameras and handed them out to the locals. You can see the results here: http://sjaeloer.dk/video

Maybe the sound quality is not top notch, and maybe the picture is a little shaky, but when locals film locals you get a much more interesting result than a “real” film crew could have done with all their intimidating cameras and boom sticks etc.

Using video in this way has been an eye-opener for us, and we will definitely use video cameras more in future projects.

På torsdag 6. august er der udendørs filmvisning på Sjælør Boulevard – den nye danske komedie Blå Mænd bliver vist som en del af OS PÅ SJÆLØR-projektet. Jespers Rejsebio kommer og sætter lærred og projektor op. Her er en trailer:

Vi glæder os til at se dig!

Since July 2008 we have been sharing an office space in central Copenhagen with 5 other people, mainly journalists. It has been great, but now it is time to move on. We decided to start our own shared office. The new place is located at the end of Islands Brygge, where the city ends. The building itself is the last part of “bryggen” that has not yet been filled up with new expensive apartments etc.

Setting up the new office is taking quite some time, and at the same time we are busy with various website jobs. So the recent silence here on the blog is just a good sign.

Here is a picture of some of our future office friends and other crew members – our new office building is the one on the left:

More pictures here